Repent All Ye Sinners

Travel to the borders of Cook County in Illinois and you'll find signs.

Lots of signs, all saying about the same thing.

Those who continue to live and smoke cigarettes in Cook County will be looking for those signs as they drive around searching for a cheaper smoke.

To raise more revenue, the Cook County Board added another dollar in tax to a pack of cigarettes, one of the so-called sin taxes that penalize activities that are viewed as evil, especially when the majority of those who indulge are the poor.

It's not unlike the days of "No Irish Need Apply", when government authorities tried to shut down the saloons on Sundays because it was a sin to drink on the Sabbath. That which the Puritans found sinful continues to be punished, but now it's a tax that is meant to ding the sinner in the wallet and force them to amend their ways because you can't afford a pack a day and still feed your family.

Of course it's for the smokers' own good.

Just like Sunday closing laws were done for the good of the immigrant families, falling into poverty due to drunkenness and immorality according to the overblown hype.

The poor don't have the means to do much protesting against the added expense, and when they have to turn to the government for their health care, the government is going to make them pay for getting smoking-related diseases by coercing them to stop smoking.

Historically, the tax increases in the past have brought in additional revenue for a short period of time, during which smokers either quit or find another source. And you don't have to go far to find another source in one of the collar counties, or even Indiana if you're on the South Side of Chicago.

Then the Cook County Board will have to come up with some other way to generate the money they need to function and continue to provide no-work jobs for the politically connected.

In the meantime, enterprising Chicago business owners, particularly those who sell to the impoverished residents of the inner city, will continue to smuggle in smokes from Indiana to sell at "discounted" prices to the sinners who find that repenting isn't as easy as just saying no to that nicotine craving.